This invention relates to carriers for flanged articles, and especially to carriers for beverage containers such as cans and bottles. Applicants are aware of the following patents, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein:
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Four considerations have influenced the present invention and the development of applicants, carriers for flanged articles reduction in the amount and/or cost of materials making up the carrier, adaptability to high-speed machine application in container filling and packaging lines, compatibility with existing containers and packaging practices, and consideration of the environmental impact of the carrier throughout the entire use cycle, from production of its constituent materials through final disposal.
Paper is derived from a renewable resource. It is inexpensive, recycleable, cleanly combustible, and biodegradable. It is therefore an object of this invention to employ paper as the primary constituent of the carrier, preferably in the form of paperboard. To further the effort to recycle containers used with the carrier, it is an additional object of the invention, and of designs which practice the invention, to preserve the integrity of the carrier sufficiently when containers are removed that it can easily accept and retain empty containers and make their return convenient.
Unless it can completely replace existing methods and equipment, an innovation must harmonize with everything it cannot supplant, or it will fail to be adopted. It is therefore a further objective of this invention that it be adaptable to existing packaging machinery and practices and accommodate present and foreseen future container designs. In addition, applicants have developed equipment and methods specifically compatible with their carrier.
The following discussion is in terms of a modern necked beverage can, which has a cylindrical body fairing into a tapered section which reduces the diameter sufficiently that a lid sealed onto the top will have an overall diameter no larger than that of the cylindrical part of the body. However, it will be appreciated that the invention can use cylindrical cans by putting spacers in the can array and by placing the carrier holes further apart, as described herein. Similarly, the invention works equally well with bottles.
Applicants' invention in a beverage carrier uses a sheet of paperboard which is diecut with an array of circular holes, such as a rectangular array. Such an array matches the normal arrangement of cans in a carton or case and leaves uncommitted spaces within the array where finger-grip holes for handling the package can be located. Center-to-center spacing of the array is preferably (but not necessarily) equal to the major diameter of the container for which the carrier is designed, such as for necked cans. This feature partially relieves the paperboard sheet from the bending moment imposed by container weight, for when the containers' sides touch, their tendency to twist out of engagement with the carrier holes is greatly reduced. Plain cylindrical cans may also be used with suitable spacing for finger holes.
As further described herein, in relation to the preferred embodiment of this invention, the stock from which the carrier may be formed is preferably solid paperboard. The paperboard may be laminated for additional strength or decoration or may also be coated by clay coating or conventional methods of applying printable surfaces to paper. The carrier may have additional strengthening placed around the container holes, as described herein. The holes may be circular and may have a surrounding ring embossed in the paperboard. Numerous cuts form a series of projections or fingers that snap under a can flange, or other container chime, to hold the container. To prevent loss of the container completely through the sheet, the internal diameter of the surrounding ring is preferably less than the sum of twice the paperboard thickness and the container body diameter. To conserve strength in the areas between two opposed apertures, the cuts may be arranged to avoid the close approach of cuts from two adjacent apertures, as shown herein.
The design in the choice of finger width is not critical, however, too narrow fingers may buckle or twist under axial loading and provide little retaining force on the container. Too wide fingers may transmit sufficient torque to the sheet to make its edge ripple and corners turn down. With paperboard thickness adequate for 12-ounce cans, applicants have found that a width of twenty degrees of the circumference of the hole avoids both problems.
In the present invention the addition of a second ring embossed concentrically around the first ring mentioned above, as described herein, surprisingly provides a compliant member or area to take up the deformation at the base of a finger. This supplies a spring force to maintain the fingers in engagement with the container, and stiffens the surrounding sheet to minimize distortion from the desired planar shape. It is unnecessary to extend the outer embossed ring completely around an aperture, since the forces between adjacent apertures typically balance and reflect no torque on the sheet.
Scored lines which define hinges and bends in the prior art weapon any paper carrier and promote moisture absorption at those points, so that heavier material or more of it is required to insure safe carriage of the product. Embossing largely preserves the surface of the paperboard and reduces the material needed to produce a carrier.
Forming of the carrier from a flat sheet (with minor bumps of the embossed rings around the holes) facilitates preparation from roll stock and application to containers right in a packaging line at speeds compatible with modern equipment and material handling methods. For example, the edge of the flat carrier sheet can overlap the edges of adjacent carriers to permit stacking of interlocked groups for transportation, pallet storage, stacking in cold vaults, or retail display. In addition, the fingers retain sufficient strength even after containers have been removed to accept and hold empty containers and encourage their return for recycling. The upright posture of the fingers and the containers eliminates drainage of remnant beverages or rinse water, and the stacking of interlocking groups makes it convenient and tidy to accumulate a reasonable number in a given space.
Application of carriers to containers is not restricted to six packs in high-volume, high-speed situations. The same carrier configuration is suitable for different numbers and other sizes of containers, although the invention works best with containers whose body diameter is larger than the flange or chime diameter by enough to accommodate the array of fingers and the embossed rings on which they are based, as in bottles and beverage cans. Besides the traditional 6-pack, the present invention works for 2-, 3-, 4-, 8-, 9-, 12-, 15-, 18- and 24-packs. Formed roll stock that feeds high-speed machines can also be used by simple manually-operated machines scaled to smaller volumes of product handled by distributors or retailers or by large machines and methods, as described herein.
Besides the recycling advantages of paper, dispensing with plastics derived from petroleum promotes independence of an imported raw material and removes a significant hazard to fish, waterfowl, and other wildlife known to be injured or killed by the joined plastic rings which represent the present standard of grouping flanged containers.
It is thus an object of this invention to produce a carrier for beverage containers which is usable by both large and small scale carrier installing machines.
It is an object of this invention to produce carriers for beverage containers which can be made from web stock and applied as a continuous web in a beverage container ringing process.
It is an object of this invention to produce a carrier for beverage containers from environmentally safe and degradable paper stock.
It is an object of this invention to produce a carrier for beverage containers which incorporates additional aperture strengthening structure.
It is an object of this invention to produce carriers which can be conveniently disposed of by biodegradation and/or incineration.
It is a further object of this invention to produce a machine capable of installing carriers for beverage containers in a modern beverage producing line.
It is an object of this invention to produce a machine for installing carriers for beverage containers which is inexpensive to build and purchase and which may be used on a small scale and powered by hand.
It is a further object of this invention to produce a machine for installing carriers for beverage containers which has positive locating, indexing and transfer of the carriers and the beverage containers.
It is a further object of this invention to produce a machine for installing carriers for beverage containers which has positive transfer pilots for indexing and locating the carriers in relation to the beverage containers.
Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following Description of the Drawings, the Drawings and the Description of the Preferred Embodiments.